A service center for local enterprises gets ready to give advice and consultations on business policies. [Photo/dzrb.dzng.com]

To boost its economic development, the Shinan district – located in Qingdao city in East China's Shandong province – announced 20 new policies during the 2020 Qingdao Shinan Entrepreneurs Conference last November and it now seems to be paying dividends.

The goal was to attract investment and recruit experts and more than 500 companies and individual professionals in Shinan recently received grants at the 2020 annual economic development policy awards, a program that handed out a total of 260 million yuan ($40.47 million) in funding.

The year 2021 has been called locally the "year of comprehensive development and breakthrough" for Shinan.

With its goal of speeding up the construction of the core area of a modern international metropolis, the district is striving to build a so-called '2+4' industrial system – led by the headquarters economy and digital economy and focusing on modern finance, trade and commerce, shipping and rounded off with culture and tourism.

Last year Shinan was selected as one of the 2020 Hurun Top 100 Regions with the Most Investment Potential in China, released by the Hurun Research Institute.

Also in 2020, Shinan allocated nearly 13 million yuan in grants and support funds to 13 outstanding individuals and business ventures – including academics from at home and abroad and nine talent platforms.

In a bid to build a global shipping business cluster, the Shinan International Shipping Trade and Finance Innovation Center has started full operations. In addition, the number of national 5A logistics enterprises and the total number of A-level logistics enterprises are reported to both rank first in Qingdao.

To top it off, Shinan handed out 1.4 million yuan in grants to 12 shipping logistics enterprises that passed the national AAA-level or above accreditation.